Board of directors
Mike Heffernan
Chairman
Mike was appointed Chairman of NMD Pharma in December of 2022, bringing with him 30 years of experience working in biopharmaceutical companies at both the development and commercial stages. He is a serial entrepreneur, most recently founding US-based oncology company Avenge Bio where he serves as the Chairman and CEO. He also founded, Collegium Pharmaceutical where he was the CEO until June 2018 and it currently the Chairman.
Since launching his career at Eli Lilly and Company, Mike has held a number of leadership roles. He was the CEO and founder of the dermatology company Precision Dermatology which was sold to Valeant in 2014. Mike was also the CEO of Clinical Studies Ltd., a company sold to PhyMatrix Corp. in 1997. Mike is a registered pharmacist, holding a B.Sc. in Pharmacy from the University of Connecticut.
Sabine Dandiguian
Non-executive director
Sabine Dandiguian is Managing Partner at Jeito Capital and has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry. She serves on the Boards of SparingVision, Pulmocide and NMD Pharma as a representative of Jeito.
Prior to Jeito, she spent 20 years at Johnson & Johnson, notably becoming President of France at Janssen, then Managing Director of European emerging countries.
Sabine has been recognized as Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and is a member of the « Assemblée des 100 » of Institut Pasteur. She has been a member of W.I.T.H. (Women Innovating Together in Healthcare) association since its creation.
Christian E. Elling
Non-executive director
Christian joined Lundbeckfonden in 2012 and is the managing partner of Lundbeckfonden BioCapital, the evergreen biotech investment unit of Lundbeckfonden and part of the leadership team of Lundbeckfonden. Christian applies more than 20 years of experience across drug development, biotech and venture capital. He is the chairperson of the board of directors of SNIPR Biome and Cytoki Pharma and member of the board of directors of IO Biotech, NMD Pharma, Afyx Therapeutics. He was a co-founder, VP and CEO of 7TM Pharma. Christian holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
David Evans
Non-executive director
David Evans is an Investment Director at the Roche Venture Fund and brings over 20 years’ experience in the healthcare industry covering clinical development, market access and health economics, and health-sector policy and financing. Before joining the Roche Venture Fund, David was at Roche Pharmaceuticals where he led the global data sciences team supporting the neuroscience and rare diseases pipeline. Earlier in his career, David worked at Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly at global and affiliate levels and, prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, at the World Bank, with Médecins Sans Frontières, and in clinical medicine. He is a Board Observer with Noema Pharma and Enthera and is involved with multiple other Roche Venture Fund portfolio companies. David trained in medicine at the University of Sydney, Australia and holds a PhD in clinical epidemiology.
Simone Botti
Non-executive director
Simone joined the NMD Pharma Board in 2023, bringing with him over 20 years of experience working as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He is a Partner and Head of Healthcare at INKEF Capital and has a proven track record of alternating between founding and leading early-stage life sciences from inception through both pre-clinical and early clinical stages of development to leading investment teams in funding life science companies from pre-seed to growth rounds. He also serves on the Board of Anavo Therapeutics, Cardior Pharmaceuticals, Precirix, Scenic Biotech and VarmX.
Prior to joining INKEF, Simone was Head of the Israel Bioincubator Fund at M Ventures, where he was responsible for stimulating innovation by bridging the gap between academic research and the growing biotechnology industry in Israel. He concurrently co-founded and was CEO of Metabomed, a cancer metabolism company focused on developing novel therapies based on computational biology, genomics and metabolomics.
Simone holds a Ph.D. in Structural Biology and Neurobiology from the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he received the ‘Dov Elad’ prize in Structural Biology.
Morten G. Døssing
Non-executive director
Morten joined NMD Pharma’s Board in 2017. Morten currently serves as a Partner in the company creation team at Novo Seeds where he leads new company formation. He also serves on the Board of Acesion Pharma, Avilex, Camels IDS, Hoba Therapeutics, STipe Therapeutics, and Syndesi Therapeutics. Furthermore, he is Chairman of the Board for Muna Therapeutics and HyperBio Therapeutics.
Previously, Morten was Director of Corporate Development at H. Lundbeck A/S where he was involved in M&A, corporate strategy, BD&L, portfolio management and equity investments. While at Lundbeck, Morten successfully led the acquisition of orphan neurology company Chelsea Therapeutics for $658m USD and was involved in a range of other deals including the $1.8bn USD alliance with Otsuka Pharmaceuticals as well as equity investments and spinouts. Before Lundbeck, Morten worked as a commercial manager in technology transfer to commercialize and establish new companies in biotech. Earlier in his career, Morten co-led the life science consulting practice at a boutique advisory firm in Copenhagen focusing on business development and management consulting.
Morten holds an MSc in Human Biology from the University of Copenhagen.
Jeremy Springhorn
Non-executive director
Dr. Springhorn joined NMD Pharma’s Board in 2019. He has been Chief Executive Officer of Nido Biosciences since April 2021. Prior to this Jeremy held various senior positions including Chief Business Officer of Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Partner at Flagship Pioneering, where he worked with the VentureLabs group working with companies in various strategic and corporate development capacities, creating next generation startups, and working with Flagship’s Corporate Limited Partners. Jeremy was also one of the original scientists at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and was one of the inventors of the drug Soliris®. Jeremy started at Alexion in 1992 where he served in various leadership roles in R&D before switching to Business Development in 2006. Jeremy received his PhD from Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans and his BA from Colby College, Maine. Dr. Springhorn currently serves on the Board of Directors for uniQure N.V., the Board of Advisors for Mythic Therapeutics and the Board of Visitors for Colby College.
Thomas Holm Pedersen
Chief Executive Officer
Thomas co-founded NMD Pharma and has been CEO of the Company since its inception in 2015. During this time, NMD Pharma has transitioned from early a discovery-stage to clinical-stage company. He has led various financing rounds of the Company including raising one of the largest Series A investments in the sector in Europe in 2018.
The scientific basis of NMD Pharma - utilizing ClC-1 as a novel target for restoring muscle function in neuromuscular disease - comes from the academic work conducted at Aarhus University by Thomas and colleagues. Thomas obtained his PhD from Aarhus University and completed two years of post-doctoral work at Cambridge University. As a scientist, Thomas focused on cellular electrophysiology and ion channel biophysics, developing novel methods to understand the function and regulation of ClC-1 in health and disease. He has published more than 40 high-ranking papers including in Science and PNAS.
